Whether he’s treating skin cancer or performing cosmetic procedures to enhance a person’s self-esteem, Dr. Mohammed Dany is driven by precision.
“My passion is serving patients who have skin cancer with the highest levels of accuracy,” says Dany, a surgeon who has trained at prestigious academic medical centers — Harvard Medical School, the University of Pennsylvania and New York University — and is fluent in English, Arabic, and French. “At VCU Health, I’m able to work alongside some of the top experts in the field and pioneer the ways we detect, manage, and treat skin cancers.”
As the VCU Health director of Mohs and dermatologic surgery, Dany is one of only a handful of Mohs surgeons in the greater Richmond area. Mohs micrographic surgery is the most advanced and effective treatment for skin cancer, providing a cure rate up to 99%.
Mohs is a “margin-controlled” surgery for non-melanoma and melanoma skin cancers, meaning the cancer and healthy tissue nearby is removed, then immediately examined microscopically to determine if cancer cells are present and whether more treatment is required. Once the cancer is completely removed, the wound is reconstructed to provide an optimal cosmetic result. At VCU Health, Dany is adding to the Mohs lab the immunohistochemistry service, a highly specialized laboratory technique that allows better visualization of surgical margins for patients with melanoma. VCU Health will be the first to offer this type of treatment in Virginia and the DC region.
“We have a positive attitude in our clinic and bond with our patients,” Dany says. “Mohs surgery can take the entire day, so we keep patients comfortable in their surgical suite and always have drinks and snacks available to make the experience as pleasant as possible.”
In addition to Mohs surgery, Dany is also a cutaneous oncologist, treating patients with rare tumors such as Merkle cell carcinoma, sebaceous carcinoma and Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans.
His commitment to accuracy extends to cosmetic and laser surgery, where he enhances his patients' self-esteem through various procedures, including neurotoxin injections, hyaluronic acid filler injections and advanced laser treatments.
Dany is also an active researcher in the dermatologic field, with a particular interest in integrating molecular biology into the staging of skin cancers and identifying biomarker